The Secret Ingredient
by Katia Earley
Summary: PRS/SS. Post-series. The five times Mia cooked for someone, and the one time someone cooked for her.
1. Prologue

**AN: A bit of a break from my other Power Ranger story, "Dual Samurais." If you haven't read it yet, please give it a chance. This plot bunny took hold of me, and just wouldn't leave me alone. Chances are that if I ever get around to it, I will probably rewrite this at some point. Leave a review! I would really appreciate it!**

 **DISCLAIMER: I do not own Power Rangers. This is for fun, not money. Enjoy!**

It had been a few months since the samurai rangers all split up and went about their normal lives. The fact that Master Xandred was no longer something to worry about had a different effect on each of the rangers. Lauren and Jayden, who had never really lived, were finally going on adventures and experiencing things they had never been freely able to do before. Not only that, but they were also slowly, but surely, rebuilding their sibling relationship after being apart for so long. Mia couldn't be happier for them, because if anyone deserved a second chance at life, the Shiba siblings definitely tied for the award. She was also happy for Kevin, who was able to go back to training for the summer Olympic Games, and Antonio, who had sent countless photos to her about all the rare and exotic fish he was seeing and catching on his world cruise trip. Out of all her teammates though, she was especially happy for the way things have been going for Emily and Mike post-ranger duty.

According to the emails she had received from Emily, and to an extent Mike, both her and Mike seemed to have taken quite a liking to living in the countryside looking after Serena. Recent emails that her bubbly, blonde friend had given Mia were filled with day-to-day activities that transpired on her family farm. One such email included a detailed report about the current standing between Mike and one of the dairy cows on the farm who refused to be milked by him. Other snippets from Emily's emails included how proud her parents were about how well she took her sister's place and helped put an evil permanently to rest, how her sister had finally gone into remission and seemed infinitely better than she had been since she had gotten sick, and how much she loved having Mike around. It was reading those bits of her emails about how her relationship with Mike was flourishing that made Mia smile the most. Knowing that her friend was so happy in love made Mia feel so content with everything that happened during their ranger days. If all of them had not gone through what they did, Mike and Emily may not have been as close as they are now. However, despite being so utterly joyful for growing couple, it didn't stop Mia from being a bit jealous of the two of them from finding each other.

Ever since Mia was a little girl, all she ever dreamed of was to find her Prince Charming. In childhood, she married her dolls and stuffed animals in so many different combinations it was difficult for her to recall now which ones married whom. As she grew up, she secretly scavenged through old magazines for wedding dress inspirations and other wedding details. By the time she was ten years old she had her perfect wedding all figured out in all its details. All she needed was the find her perfect man, and she was set. However, at such a young age, she had no idea how difficult that would end up being.

Regardless of the countless unsatisfying dates she had gone on since the end of their ranger watch and the start of culinary school, Mia still had hope that her soulmate was out there somewhere in the world waiting to find his missing piece like she was. She didn't feel discouraged in the least, since she was a firm believer in "everything happens for the reason".  
But she only wished that her "happily ever after" would come sooner rather than later.

When she was a ranger, it was easier to hide away from the fact that she was pretty lonely. Mostly because she was with a group of her friends practically every minute of every day. Now though, she had some trouble making other friends. After going through what she did with the other rangers, it changed her. No one could else could ever fully understand the struggles and obstacles that she and her teammates overcame in the two years that they were in action. Not only that, but she would be constantly lying to her non-ranger friends because the identities of the Samurai Rangers must be kept a secret for all of their safety. Relating to the other students in her culinary classes just seemed too difficult and like a chore, if she was being honest. She always had to be on her toes to make sure she doesn't say too much or too less, and the anxiety in dealing with all the expectations of a social relationship with someone who was not a ranger more or less spooked her. This was more than likely the reason for her many, many, many failed dates. Due to the entire situation, the intense feeling of uncomfortableness and isolation had a constant, vice-like grip on her heart, and would not unstick its horrible claws off of it.

It was during this time that Mia was eternally glad that she had her cooking to fall back upon. She knew that the other rangers never really liked her cooking- well besides Lauren. That they only ever ate everything that she made because they never wanted to hurt her feelings. But she knew that with each passing day that she was improving on her cooking. But more than that, cooking was a way for her to forget all the negativity that she had to deal with and just enjoy what she loved to do. Mia was able to take the cons of being alone and channeled that into getting better at making delicious things, if she says so herself. Her practice dishes and treats mostly ended up being donated to the local soup kitchen, but it was when she cooked that the pressure on her heart alleviated a bit.

She figured that in order to feel happy and accomplished herself, she would cook and bake to her hearts content. Then maybe, just maybe, one day that constant weight in her chest would go away forever, just like Master Xandred.


	2. 1 Kevin

**AN: Hey guys! Here is chapter two of this mini story that wouldn't leave me alone. Just letting you know, a lot of this story focuses on the friendship of the rangers. The romance part is just desserts really (haha, didn't mean to make a pun).**

 **In case you were wondering, my other story "Dual Samurais" has not been abandoned. It just takes more time to get chapters written for that story, and I really don't have the time to give it my full attention at the moment. This story just came into my head more or less fully written, and I didn't want to leave you all with nothing. So here you go! Please excuse the grammar and spelling mistakes. I post chapters as soon as they are written. Please leave a review!**

 **DISCLAIMER: I do not own Power Rangers. This is for fun, not money. Enjoy!  
**

Kevin

"Dude, look! She's back."

"Who?"

"That girl who usually comes by to see Kevin train. She's sitting over there in the corner by herself with the blue cooler bag on her lap."

"Oh, right. I see her."

"Well?"

"Well, what?"

"Where's my twenty? I totally won the bet. Didn't I tell you she was Kevin's girlfriend?"

"We still don't know if she really is Kevin's girlfriend."

"Oh please! Of course she is. Why else would she here, sitting in the stands like all the other girlfriends?"

Mia tried to not make any sudden movements which would give away that she was able to hear the conversation occurring between two of Kevin's teammates. She could feel the laser stares of the two swimmers sitting on the bench down by the pool. In her defense, she wasn't really eavesdropping, because after all, eavesdropping isn't polite. However, they were talking loud enough that it carried over to where she was sitting. Mia didn't even need to strain herself in any attempt to hear the conversation better. Their voices were crisp and clear, regardless of all the other background noise in the gym.

It also didn't help that this wasn't the first time she had overheard such a conversations between Kevin's teammates. It took a lot of self-control for Mia to not roll her eyes.

'Why do I have to be Kevin's girlfriend to support him? A girl and a guy can be just friends,' Mia thought, clenching her fists tight around the thick black strap of the cooler bag. She tried to breathe slowly through her noise in an attempt to calm the ever present annoyance that she has been getting so familiar with every time she came to cheer Kevin on. Slowly, but surely, Mia was able to regain some self-composure. It did help that the two guys had been called by the coach, thus bringing their conversation to an end.

Unfortunately however, Mia's reprieve from the two gossiping teammates was brief. As she turned her gaze towards the pool, she saw that a bunch of Kevin's teammates were huddled around him. She could see that they were talking to him about something with smirks on their faces. They gave him congratulatory pats to the back, accompanied with plenty of wiggling eyebrows and unsubtle winks. From her vantage point, Mia was able to clearly see Kevin's surprised face, which slowly morphed to understanding, and then quickly turn red in embarrassment. Kevin turned towards the stands and looked at her. With his rose-tinged face, he mouthed the words 'sorry' at her. Mia just shook her head and gave him a thumbs up sign with a smile, trying to let him know that they were okay regardless of what was being said. As he was being playfully pushed towards the changing room by the rest of his teammates, Kevin made sure to give Mia a smile back.

During this exchange, Mia wasn't aware of one of the other girls sitting in the stands had made her way towards her.

"Hey," the girl called. "I've seen you come here quite often. What's your name?"

Startled out of her own thoughts, Mia replied. "Hi, my name is Mia."

"My name is Sophie, nice to meet you," the girl, Sophie, said.

"Nice to meet you too."

There was an awkward pause in the conversation, which made Mia feel as though Sophie would just get up and leave. It wasn't like Mia was all that bad at socializing, she just didn't know what to say to people when she first meets them. Her half of the conversation always seemed to be stilted and staccato-like.

"So, you come here to see Kevin right?" Sophie asked, breaking the silence.

"Oh yeah… Yes, I come here to see Kevin." Mia answered back, playing around with the black strap of the cooler bag once again. She was eternally grateful to have something to fiddle around with on her trip here this time.

"Are you his girlfriend?"

"No, just friends. Kevin is just a friend."

"Then why do you come so often to see him train? Why are you here right now?" Sophie inquired, not unkindly but just genuinely curious. A deep crease had formed on her forehead, as she waited for Mia explanation.

'Why am I here, indeed,' she said to herself internally.

It all started about a few months ago. After disbanding from ranger duty, everyone had gone on their own to finally live normal lives. However, the team still had kept constant contact with each other through emails and texts. Luckily, Mia, Kevin, Jayden, and Lauren all had their current home base in Panorama City, thus allowing them to meet up with each other every now and then. Since the four of them were unable to fill the void left by their other friends being so far away and not being able to spend every minute of every day together like they had for so long, they decided to always make sure to be there for one another when the withdrawal from the Power hits.

In the first few months after being done, both Jayden and Lauren had gone through a complete identity crisis. The disciplined life of the Samurai was the only thing the two of them knew, making it difficult for them to figure out what they wanted to do now that their future was no longer just an abstract thing in theory. Traveling around with Ji, and by themselves for a bit kept their minds off of that for a while, but those thoughts were constant black clouds hovering over them. Neither Jayden nor Lauren ever really mentioned their inner turmoil in any of the emails the team exchanged with each other, but it was obvious that both needed some intervention.

That was when they decided to meet up with each other as often as they could. It helped the four of them be able to transition from being power rangers to being normal adults trying to live their lives. Whenever either of them suddenly went into a slump, they someone there to help pull them out of it.

Which was why Mia had been coming to Kevin's training sessions at the community gym. Kevin had been feeling low lately, and it was obvious from the texts he had been sharing with the group. Lauren, Jayden, and herself had come up with a rotation schedule where at least one of them would be there at the gym to support him.

This week was actually supposed to be Jayden's turn, but he had a doctor's appointment to go to.

"Don't worry about me, Mia. I'm completely fine. It's just an annual routine check-up." He had told her on the phone when he called her to ask if they could switch places on the rotation schedule. Lauren had apparently decided to visit Ocean's Bluff, intent on trying "the best pizza ever!" at their quite famous pizzeria called Jungle Karma Pizza. Apparently, bananas could count as a pizza topping. Who knew?

Mia had no problem with going, but she had been in a cooking mood all day. Before Jayden had called her for the favor, she was itching to get home so she could make something, anything really. After the change in the plans, she decided that she could still cook before Kevin's training session even began. Which gave her an idea, one that she was sure Kevin would appreciate.

Back to the present, Mia realized that because she was so preoccupied with her thoughts, she had kept Sophie without an explanation for a long time.

"I'm just here to support one of my friends. That's all." Mia finally replied with a slight shrug.

"Seriously?" Sophie asked in disbelief.

Mia nodded her head. "Seriously."

It was obvious that Sophie was now done with their conversation, so she said her goodbye, and walked back to where she was sitting before she decided to talk to Mia. Mia watched her go, with a look of grim understanding on her face.

Sophie didn't get it, non-rangers never really do. They will never truly understand the rangers' relationship with each other, and it would be so difficult to explain to anyone anyway. No one will understand what it feels like to go into battle without fear of whether or not they can trust the person on the battlefield with them. No one will understand how it feels to suddenly realize that the people who they think of as family could get hurt, or worse, die. The team went through high and lows, and came out of it all more or less all right because they had each other. Yeah, they tend to be quite dependent on each other for validation, but that was how they were able to be themselves.

It was once again that Mia got so wrapped up in her thoughts that she failed to notice her surroundings.

"Hey, Mia." Kevin called to her as he approached. He was dressed in the same outfit he was wearing when they were first called into action; black track pants and a zipped up blue hoodie. Mia broke into a huge smile. Her smile was obviously contagious because Kevin couldn't help but break out into one of his own, despite being utterly confused. "What? Why are you smiling about?"

Mia just shook her head and giggled. She didn't need to explain herself. "Don't worry about it. Awesome session today, Kevin. I may be no expert, but it is obvious that you are improving."

"You think? I can't seem to get my turns to be smoother. That is key. If I improve my turns, I can cut my time by seconds." Kevin stated in excitement, gesturing with his hands to emphasize.

"Well, I think if you keep doing what you are doing, I'm sure you will accomplish your goal."

"Thanks, Mia. By the way, isn't it Jayden's turn to come this week?" Kevin asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, well, he had to go to a doctor's appointment today. So you got stuck with me." Mia told him.

"Stuck with you, never!" Kevin said playfully. Sobering up, suddenly he looked her. "Is something wrong with Jayden that he had to go to the doctor's?"

Looking at how serious Kevin got, Mia rushed to assuage his concern. "No, of course not. Just an annual routine check-up."

"Oh okay. So can I ask what's in the cooler bag with you?" Kevin pointed to the bag still on her lap.

"Oh right, this is for you. Why don't you open it and see." Mia held the bag out for him to take. Kevin eagerly unzipped, and this time it was a huge smile that broke out on his face.

"You made me dinner?" He questioned.

"Not just any dinner. Doesn't it look familiar to you?"

Kevin looked at the fried chicken and mixed vegetables in confusion for a bit. Mia knew the exact moment when he realized. "This is what you made for me when we had that stakeout."

"Yep, but this time I assure you it tastes a hundred times better so you won't have to toss it all out." Mia assured him.

"Wow, Mia, this is very kind of you. Thank you. You didn't have to do that." Kevin told her, obviously touched that she would do this for him.

Mia just waved him off. "It's no problem. You said practice was going to run late today and I really wanted to cook something today, so I figured why not hit two birds with one stone. And, fyi, there is no need for thanks in friendship."

"I know, but appreciation is always good to display when someone does something kind for you. And speaking of kind, where are my manners. Would you like some?" Kevin asked her holding out a drumstick.

"No thank you, I already ate before I came." Mia said, as she saw him bring the piece to his mouth to eat.

"Whoa, this is actually really good!" Kevin exclaimed, mouth full of food.

"I'm glad you like it." Mia stated, happy that her cooking was definitely improving.

"Culinary school is a good fit for you." Kevin stated with a laugh. Mia hit his shoulder in mock anger, but it only made him laugh more. During all of this exchange, people were starting to leave. However, she noticed that people kept looking at them and whispering as they exited.

"Not his girlfriend, yeah right," Mia heard Sophie whisper as she walked past them.

Mia rolled her eyes at Sophie's words and decided to ignore all the attention they were getting. "Gee, thanks Kev. I appreciate it."

After Kevin had finished inhaling his dinner, the pair decided to go to the bakery for some dessert.

"Wow, Kevin, I'm impressed. Are you really going to ruin your diet with a sweet treat?" Mia asked him as they waited on line.

"Funny, Mia. Just order whatever you want. It's on me." Kevin replied back. As soon as he did though, his phone buzzed. He reached into his pocket, unlocked the screen, and read the text he received.

"Really? That's sweet of you. Thanks, I don't really know what to get." Mia said, looking at the glass case filled with cookies, cupcakes, brownies, and other amazing dessert options.

"Well, I think I'm going to make your decision harder." Seeing the confused look on Mia's face, he continued. "Jayden said we should just stop by the Shiba home and chill out there for a bit since it's still a bit early. So we need to get something for him too. Is that an okay plan for the rest of our day?"

"Absolutely! We can ask him how his appointment went. As for what to get him, it's simple. Red velvet cupcake with vanilla icing, not cream cheese icing." She replied to him, still looking at the glass case to see what to get for herself. "And I think I'll just get a café mocha to go."

Kevin laughed. "Too many choices?"

Mia nodded and laughed too. "Yeah, too many choices."

In the end though, it really didn't matter that Mia didn't buy a dessert. After seeing that she had only gotten a drink, Jayden decided to split his cupcake with her as they caught up with each other about their day.


	3. 2 Emily

**AN: Chapter three is now up! YAY! Took a bit of a while to write this chapter. I don't know how I feel about it, but I really wanted to get it up. Mike should be the next chapter. Hope you like it. As always, please take the time to leave a review.**

 **DISCLAIMER: I do not own Power Rangers. This is for fun, not money. Enjoy!**

EMILY

Mia was so excited for today. Why? Well, that is because it was her best friend's birthday today, and due to her party, Mia was going to be able to see everyone again for the first time in a long time. Furthermore, as it was confirmed last year while they were all rangers, this year Mia was able to make Emily's cake. The rest of the gang now had faith in her cooking, so they were not as apprehensive as last year to allow her to bake. She could not wait.

From the moment that it was decided that Emily wanted to come back to Panorama City to celebrate her birthday with everyone, Mia started making preparations as to what to make. Antonio had called Mia to tell her that he would be more than happy to help with the actual meal of the night.

"Chica, if you plan on making the cake and dinner you are bound to get overwhelmed. Let me take care of dinner, you focus on making that delicious cake." Antonio said a week ago on the telephone.

Mia agreed, knowing that he was right. She wanted to make sure that the cake was the best it could possibly be for Emily's birthday. Her recent cooking classes just began its sessions on desserts, and Mia had found that she had a strong gift for making confections. Her chocolate chip cookies, homemade cupcakes with homemade icing, brownies, and so on were often praised by her tasting guinea pigs (meaning Kevin, Jayden, and Lauren). Her cake baking ability however, took her to the next level.

Taking what she had learned from her classes, Mia was able to bake what she thought was the best cake in history. It was a two tier yellow sponge cake, with chocolate hazelnut cream in between. It was then covered in yellow fondant, the same color yellow as her ranger suit. Using homemade white buttercream frosting, she decorated the cake with intricate spirals and added sugar flowers as the last touch.

"Emily is going to flip when she sees this!" Mia said aloud to herself as she took out the cake from her refrigerator. She placed it gently on her small kitchen counter and took a few moments to admire it. "Okay, now to get it to the Shiba house." Carefully, she picked up the cake and put both her hands under the plate that it was on. She then placed it into a box so it would be easier to carry and transport via car.

Unfortunately, as she was making her way to her car, her foot caught on a large rock. The rock caused her to stumble, and jostled her hands. In her momentary lapse of control, the box slipped from her hand and fell on the ground. Baking and decorating the cake took about a day and a half to make, but dropping it only took a split second. Mia couldn't help but stare at the now ruined cake splattered on the ground. After what felt like an eternity, she bent down and picked up the box. Seeing that there was no salvaging the cake, she walked to her garbage can and threw it out on auto pilot. She then got into her car and drove to the Shiba house.

"Hello, Mia." Ji greeted her warmly, when he answered the door. "So good to see you."

Mia gave a tight smile back in response, not really feeling that cheery. "Good to see you too. Where is Lauren and Jayden?" She asked.

"Oh, well Lauren is out getting decorations and stuff for the party. I don't know what we were thinking. You know how it is. Who knows what she will bring back." Ji chuckled, shaking his head.

The thought of Lauren going all out and picking party decorations for tonight made Mia giggle herself, despite her sad mood. Lauren had a very interesting way of doing things and her choices were often times unconventional. The group had come to figure this out when they were helping Lauren and Jayden personalize their rooms in the Shiba house. No longer needing to live the minimal lifestyle, the rangers all encouraged the siblings to change up their rooms and design them the way they wanted it to be. Lauren had painted her room white, and literally splattered different color paints all over. While Jayden had gone to furniture stores and retail stores to buy the things for his room, Lauren had bought most of her things secondhand from bargain stores and flea markets. While that in itself wasn't so odd, it was what she bought that made them weary. Hummel figurines, china faced dolls, wooden ducks, they were all in her room. There were no method to what she got for her room other than if she liked it she got it. However, despite the hodgepodge of memorabilia found in her room, it all worked together somehow. Mia had faith that whatever Lauren chooses for tonight, it will be fine.

"What about Jayden?" Mia probed.

"He's in the kitchen. Why don't you go ahead in, I have some errands to run myself." Ji answered. Mia nodded, and said her goodbye as she made her way to the kitchen.

"Mia! You're here!" Jayden exclaimed as soon as he saw her. He got up from where he was sitting to give her hug. "You're pretty early, but I figured you would be since you were bringing the cake. Tell me where it is, I'll help you bring it in." He told her with a huge grin as he pulled away.

Mia wanted to tell him what happened, but she couldn't get any words out. A lump formed in her throat, and she was starting to feel the scratchiness that accompanied it when she was about to cry. She knew it was just a cake, but it was really important to her. She wanted it to be something that Emily loved. Emily was her best friend, and she couldn't even make sure she didn't ruin her cake. Tears started to gather at the corner of her eyes. Not wanting to cry in front of Jayden for such a ridiculous thing, she kept blinking to keep the tears in.

Luckily, or unluckily, Jayden was able to tell something was wrong. "Hey, are you okay?" He asked her softly.

Mia shook her head. She couldn't keep it all in any longer. "No! Everything's ruined. I was so stupid!" She sobbed, bringing her hands up to her eyes to make sure none of the tears escaped down her cheeks.

"Mia, I'm sure everything is alright and nothing is ruined. Why don't you tell me what is going on." Jayden said to her, reaching over and bringing one of her hands that was covering her face into his own.

Dropping the hand that he wasn't holding, she took a deep breath and began to tell him what happened. "Now, Emily won't have a cake." She ended pitifully.

Jayden, who was listening intently to her story, started rubbing comforting circles on the hand he was still holding. "Emily can still have a cake. We can order one right now." He told her.

"I know." Mia responded sadly.

Picking up on her somber tone, Jayden looked at her puzzled. "Why don't you want to order her one?"

Mia took a breath. "It's just that last year I told her I was going to make her a cake for her next birthday. I've actually gotten a lot better at cooking and baking, so I figured she would actually not mind having a cake made by me. She is my best friend. I wanted to do something special for her on her birthday."

Seeing the usually cheery girl looking so down in the dumps, Jayden tried to come up with anything that would make her feel better. After a few moments of thinking, it hit him. "Wait, you said you wanted to bake a homemade cake for her right?"

"Yes."

"Then you can still do that."

"How?"

"We have all the ingredients you will need to bake a cake right here. It may not be really intricate, but you will still have baked a birthday cake. And that is all the counts right?"

Mia stopped to think about it. While her heart was really set on making the best cake ever, a simple cake was the best option she had right now. "Yeah, you're right."

Jayden clapped his hands together. "Good. Tell me what you need and I'll be more than happy to help you."

"You're going to help me?" Mia asked him, surprised.

"Well, duh. I figured four pairs of hands could get the cake done faster and in time for the party tonight."

"That's true."

"Okay, it's settled then. I will help you." Jayden started moving around the kitchen and getting things that would be needed to bake out of the cabinets. "So, let's get started, Ms. Chef!"

The gesture was so kind that it warmed Mia's heart and made her grin wide. 

All throughout the night, Mia couldn't help but feel anxious about bringing the new cake out. What if Emily didn't like it? Multiple scenarios were rushing through her mind, each one more horrible than the one that preceded it. Her face scrunched up in worry. She couldn't bear ruining her best friend's birthday. The mere thought of it had her stomach in Gordian knots.

However, regardless of all the scenarios that her mind provided her with, reality did not come close.

"Oh Mia, this is the best birthday cake ever!" Emily exclaimed, happy tears filling her eyes as she pulled Mia into a tight hug.

Stepping out of the hug, Mia looked at the birthday girl in confusion. "Really?" She asked. "But it's so simple. You don't have to give me false compliments so I wouldn't feel bad. I'll understand. I mean, I had a better cake made for you and everything. Now that cake was amazing. It was covered in yellow fondant and had sugar flowers and icing designs and-"

"And nothing, Mia." Emily interrupted, a fond look of exasperation forming on her face. "Do you want to know why this is the best birthday cake ever?"

"Why?" Mia asked, curious to hear what her friend had to say.

"Because my best friend had made a declaration exactly a year ago that on my next birthday, I will have a homemade cake in celebration. She decided that I was special enough to warrant a home baked cake, and went through the trouble of making what was more than like the most amazing cake ever. It was apparently covered in yellow fondant, had sugar flowers, and icing designs. However, when that cake got ruined, she didn't go to a store to buy a new one. No, instead, she baked a brand new one for me. Despite the lack of fondant, flowers, and designs, this cake was made out of pure love. And that is why this cake is the best birthday cake ever."

This time, it was Mia's eyes that were filling with happy tears. Emily loved her cake, and that was all she wanted. "Thanks, Em." Mia told her as she wiped the corners of her eyes with her thumb. "I shouldn't take all the credit though." She said with a watery laugh.

"No? Why not?" Emily asked her.

"Jayden helped." Mia answered her simply.

Emily turned her head to look over to where Jayden was. He was off on to the side talking to the guys about something or another, a blue plastic cup grasped in his right hand. His conversation was interrupted when Lauren said something to make the group laugh and him shake his head. Whatever it was made Jayden lift his cup to his mouth to drink in an effort to hide his slightly pink-tinged cheeks.

"Well," Emily said, focus back onto the conversation happening between her and Mia. "Thanks to the both of you. But, you were the one who originally had the idea so I am giving you the majority of the credit. Besides, he told me it was mostly all you anyway."

"He did?" Mia once again turned her gaze towards him. This time, he caught her eye and gave a little nod of the head and a smile. Both were warmly returned by Mia before she looked back to Emily.

Emily, without Mia noticing, had caught the exchange and broke into a big grin. "Yeah, he did. Pretty considerate of him to be your cooking assistant, huh?"

"Yeah, it was." Mia replied back, not catching the underlying teasing tone Emily had adopted.

"Maybe, you should ask him again to help you." Emily stated, hoping Mia would understand what she was implying.

However, Mia was oblivious to what Emily was trying to say. "Well, I guess if there ever comes a time when I need the help and he is willing, I'll be sure to do so." She told her.

Before Emily was able to carry on this thread of conversation further, both her and Mia were called over by Mike and the rest of the group on the other side of the room.

It was a good party. However, as it always happens with anything good, it can never last forever. So as the party started winding down, everyone began to make their exits for the night. Jayden had offered the many rooms at the Shiba household for them to stay in, just like when they were rangers. However, all of them had rented out apartments in the city to stay in for any time they came back, so they all had a place to go to. Soon, only Mia was left with the Shiba siblings. She had stayed behind in order to clean up the mess in the kitchen she and Jayden had made while baking Emily her cake.

"Well, I'm all partied out. I heading to bed." Lauren announced to her brother and friend as she got up from her perch on the couch. She plopped down on it sometime in the past half hour, and had even felt too lazy to get up to say bye to their friends. She playfully demanded that they come to her to say bye, and they playfully acquiesced. "Unless, of course, you want my help to clean up the kitchen?"

Mia shook her head. "No, you go to sleep. We were the ones to make the mess. Asking you to help us wouldn't be fair to you."

Jayden nodded. "Yeah, what she said. You can go."

"If you're sure?" Lauren asked, looking at the two of them uncertainly.

"Absolutely."

"Yep, we're good."

"Okay then, good night guys." She said.

"Good night, Lauren." Jayden told her, as she gave him a hug.

"Sweet dreams." Mia said when Lauren came to hug her.

With that, Lauren made her way out of the common room and towards her bedroom. She paused just before she left to throw Jayden some significant look. "Have fun!" She called out to them over her shoulder.

Jayden rolled his eyes and waved her off. Lauren winked and finally walked away. Mia however was puzzled by the exchange. It must have been some sibling thing she was not privy to. She knew from personal experience from her relationship with her younger brother about how siblings have their own secret language. This was probably just their way of communicating. Knowing that both Jayden and Lauren were able to have such bond even after all the years they were apart warmed Mia up from her head to her toes. She was so happy for her two friends.

As they started cleaning the mess in the kitchen, Mia couldn't help but think about what would have happened if Jayden hadn't made his suggestion earlier. The fact that she had been so narrowly focused on the idea that extravagance was the way to go, she completely ignored the obvious, simple solution.

"Hey Jayden," she started, as the two began washing the messy dishes piled up in the sink together. The two had been cleaning in silence for the most part, the only noise being an occasional squeak of a rag cleaning the counter or the brittles of the broom hitting the kitchen floor.

"Yeah?" Jayden replied, placing the now washed mixing bowl they had used onto the dish rack.

"Thanks for today." Mia said.

"Mia, you don't have to thank me for anything. It's all good."

"Well I know that. But I wanted to. You helped me bake the birthday cake and Emily loved it."

"Everyone loved it." Jayden laughed. "I think it was the yellow icing you made."

"The yellow icing WE made." Mia corrected, bumping her shoulder against his.

"Please, all I did was hand you the heavy cream and watch you work your magic." Jayden said.

Mia shook her head. "You did more than that, Jayden. Just take the credit."

"Should be saying the same to you." Jayden responded, splashing some water on Mia in fun.

"Hey! Watch it!" Mia playfully scolded him, giggling all the while.

Jayden put his wet hands up in surrender, and the two of them went back to washing the dishes in companionable silence.


	4. 3 Mike

**AN: Hello everybody! Chapter four is finally up! YAY! Sorry for the long wait. Real life, as in summer barbeques and weddings (like my brother's!) got in the way. But I am back with a new chapter. Hopefully, you will like it. As always, please take the time to leave a review.**

 **DISCLAIMER: I do not own Power Rangers. This is for fun, not money. Enjoy!**

MIKE

"I think that there is something terribly wrong with Mike." Emily announced out loud, biting her lower lip.

Mia and Serena, both of whom were getting extra bottles of water and medication for Mike from the Shiba household kitchen, stopped in their bustling and looked at her. They then preceded to share a worrying glance with each other.

"Well," Mia began, choosing her words carefully. "He did end up coming back sick from the trip."

The trip was supposed to be an "All Boys, No Girls Allowed" getaway for the weekend. The whole thing was cloaked with mystery, none of the guys divulging any details. Basically, it was all on a need to know basis, and the guys had decided the girls definitely did not need to know. At the same time, Lauren had come up with the idea that if the guys were going to be bonding together on a getaway, then all the girls should have a weekend long sleepover. So thus, on Friday morning everyone had conjugated at the Shiba house, and left to their destinations from there with the intention to meet back there on Sunday afternoon.

The girls had fun doing the usual sleepover things- watching chick flicks, giving each other mani-pedis, talking about nothing and everything they can, and pigging out on all types of unhealthy foods. Unfortunately, the boys were unable to say they enjoyed their weekend just as much, because whatever the guys had decided to do had far-reaching consequences. Antonio and Kevin had come back suffering from poison ivy rashes all over their bodies, while Mike ended up with the flu. Jayden was the only one out of the group to come back virtually unscathed.

When asked about the weekend, all four had remained mum on the subject and kept their peace. However, after two days of Mike not feeling any better, Jayden did share a bit.

"Look," he said scratching his neck. "It was just supposed to be a fun camping trip. It just seemed as though life didn't want us to have a good one because anything and everything that could have gone wrong did." He didn't say anymore on the matter, but from what he did say the girls were able to get the picture.

Now four days later, the results of the camping trip was still affecting them all. Antonio and Kevin were finally getting over their contagious phase of poison ivy, but Mike was still not fairing so well. He was still coughing up a storm, sneezing constantly, and his temperature would just not stabilize long enough to deem him healthy again. One hour he would be perfectly fine with a normal ninety-eight degree body temperature, while the next it would reach one-oh-one.

"That's not what I mean." Emily replied to Mia's explanation. "Actually, yes that is true, but I just mean attitude wise. He seems so moody and sad, so unlike his normal Mike self."

While Antonio and Kevin were not exactly in the most cheerful of moods about having poison ivy, they were infinitely better than Mike was about being sick. Mike was moody, depressed, and straight up sad. His usually joking comments had a steel edge to them, making him seem like a bigger jerk than normal. He almost even made Emily cry the other day, which made him ten times worse than before.

Not being able to see her younger sister so distraught, Serena walked over towards where Emily was standing and wrapped a comforting arm around her shoulders. Despite the situation, Mia couldn't help but feel heartened at the scene the two sisters made. Mentally she reminded herself to call her brother later on tonight. It had been a while since she last checked up on him.

"I'm sure once he gets better, he will be back to being good ole Mike." Mia said, feigning a smile to make her best friend feel better.

"Yeah, Em. Mike is taking to being sick the same way he would anything else he doesn't like. So maybe he isn't so out of it as you may think." Serena added, looking towards Mia for approval as to what she said.

Mia nodded discretely to her, indicating that was the right thing to say. Especially once she saw how much what they said improved Emily's mood.

"Besides, I'm cooking tonight and I'm pretty confident that after tonight things will be just fine and you wouldn't have anything to worry about." Mia told her.

Emily looked her skeptically. "Are you sure about that?" Emily asked in doubt.

"Absolutely, I have a plan." Mia assured her, eyes bright with a tad of mischief in them. "All I need to know is what Mike's favorite type of soup is."

Both sisters, who hadn't really moved from their positions, looked at each other. "Chicken Tortilla Soup." They answered in unison, giggling a bit. It was a lovely sound to Mia after having to see how concerned and worried her best friend was about her boyfriend.

"Well okay then. All I need to do now is gather up the ingredients and start cooking. Why don't you guys try to give Mike some company while I get to cooking?" Mia suggested.

"I guess you're right. I mean, god knows how long the other guys could stand being near Mike right now." Emily said sadly.

"You sure you have everything you need here?" Serena asked her quickly, before Emily could spiral back to being more upset.

"Yeah, and are you sure you don't need help?" Added Emily, momentarily forgetting her sadness in order to help out her friend.

Mia shook her head no. "I'm good, I swear. Besides, if I need anything I'll just ask Jayden or Lauren. After all, I am using their kitchen." Mia replied with a laugh.

The other two girls joined her. "That's true. We should probably thank the two of them for letting us stay longer than expected for the past week." Emily said.

"There's no need for thanks in friendship, Em. Especially when part of the blame for why you guys are still here falls partly on me." During the conversation between three girls, Jayden had come into the kitchen with the girls noticing.

"Even so," Emily said without skipping a beat and ever appreciative, "thanks for having us." She broke out of her sister's grip and reached over towards him, giving him a big hug.

"Anytime Emily. The house has been quite empty without you all here. Lauren and I live for the moments when you all come back." Jayden stated truthfully. Suddenly feeling really shy about how much he revealed he quickly added as a joke, "Why else do you think we haven't kicked you all out yet?"

The conversation between the two made Mia want to wrap him up in a big blanket and protect him from the bad world. It still hurts to think about how starved of companionship both Jayden and Lauren are even now. Things with the two of them had gotten so much better since retiring from being the Samurai rangers, but times like these really brought home the fact the Shiba siblings did not have the luxury of a normal childhood. And that fact, it seems, will always affect them.

The thought of it put a frown on Mia's face. While still thinking about it, Mia felt a hand on her shoulder. At some point while she was preoccupied with her thoughts, Serena had seen the look on her face and stepped over towards her. Mia gave Serena an appreciative smile, and both moved on from the moment.

"Just so you know," Mia heard Emily say. "We look forward to those times as well." Emily had then preceded to pull away from the hug she gave him, and gave him her patented Emily smile.

"What she said," Serena added. "And I'm the new one to the group!" She was trying to ease the tension and bring back the lightheartedness.

"Good to know," Jayden said honestly. His happy expression kind of dimmed a bit after saying that. "However, I did come in here to tell Emily that maybe you should go back to Mike for a bit. Lauren decided to bet me who would be the first one to punch Mike in the face, Antonio or Kevin, and that isn't really something I want to see. Mike's just being a bit-" Suddenly there was a crash and shouting coming from the vicinity of Mike's location- "difficult." Jayden finished with a wince.

"Oh dear." Serena said, mouth opened in surprise as Emily ran out of the kitchen towards the commotion in apparent worry. She quickly followed on her sister's heels and left Mia and Jayden by themselves.

"We seriously need to find a way to get Mike back to normal." Jayden told Mia in determination. "He's getting worse by the day."

"Don't worry, I've got this under control. I've got a plant that I think will prove to everyone that Mike is still Mike, but that he is just the worst person to be around when sick. Trust me." Mia stated.

Jayden looked straight into her eyes and replied with a slight smirk. "I always do."

Mia wanted to reply back with a lighthearted comment, but she couldn't bring herself to. Her breath was suddenly caught in her throat, and words just seemed impossible to string together at the moment. All she could focus on was Jayden's eyes boring into hers, spell-bounding her in her place. The only thing she was able to comprehend was how brown his eyes truly were, and how she never realized it before.

After what felt like an eternity, but really just seconds, Jayden spoke again. "I guess I'll leave you to it then." And with that he turned and left the kitchen.

Mia stood still in her spot for a full minute trying to regain her bearings. Taking a deep breaths, she tried to calm her erratically beating heart. "What the heck?" She asked out loud to the now empty kitchen. "What was that?"

Not wanting to deviate from her original plan of action, Mia decided to push the strange encounter and confusing feelings it stirred to the back of her mind. It was not important at right now, she had a friend to fix. And with that final thought, she started cooking.

It was now dinner time and everyone was seated on the long dining table. Mia looked around at the faces of her friends and couldn't help but sigh. No one appeared to be happy at all. Luckily, Lauren's bet had still gone unfulfilled this afternoon, but that didn't mean that it would tonight as well. Mia felt it in her bones that if her plan didn't work tonight, things will probably go from bad to worse. However, she was still confident that it would work. It had too, she refused to believe anything else.

No one was saying anything, which was so odd in itself because whenever they all got together there was nonstop conversation. Not even Lauren was talking. Things were getting bad. So Mia decided to take charge of the situation. "I didn't want to make so much for dinner today, so I decided to make soup." She announced to her abnormally quiet friends.

Sending a silent prayer to a higher power, she started ladling the chicken tortilla soup into large soup bowls and passed them along the table.

Everyone said their thanks as they got their bowl, everyone that is except Mike. Which, if she was honest with herself, didn't really bother her much. However, from the looks on the others' faces, they were offended on her behalf. Emily, on the other hand, looked mostly apologetic and disheartened.

Mia saw how irked and tired Mike was, so she didn't hold it against him. It was obvious that Mike was just as over being sick as much as the rest of them were with him being sick. When that Mike had finally saw what he was served, his eyes lit up a lot more than they had in the past week.

"Chicken tortilla soup?" Mike asked in surprise. "You made chicken tortilla soup?"

Mia nodded. "You aren't feeling too well and have been pretty picky on what you would eat, so I figured why not make something you like." Mike didn't say anything, but just nodded his head.

The thing is, as much as they may be wearing a bit thin, her friends are very courteous to each other. Which means unless they all get their meal, they wouldn't begin with their own. So as soon as they saw Mia get her own bowl and sit down as well, they began eating.

Mia did a mental countdown in her head, and waited for the reaction she hoped would come. She wasn't disappointed.

As soon as everyone took their first spoonful, their face puckered and their eyes opened wide. It was obvious from looking at them that they were trying to keep their looks of disgust off their faces and keep them neutral to not hurt her feelings like they used to before Mia started taking cooking classes.

However, this time, Mia had done it on purpose. She had made two batches of soup for dinner. One made in a way that she would have before she got better at cooking, and one done the right way. She wanted to see if the one person that she was sure would say something actually would tell her straight to her face how bad it is.

Mia heard a spoon clang loudly against the rim of a soup bowl and a hand slam on the table. It brought everyone's attention away from the horrible soup and to Mike, who had made the noise.

"What the hell is this crap?" Mike questioned loudly.

"Mike," Emily started to say, trying to keep him calm.

"This soup is disgusting!" He exclaimed, ignoring Emily's placating.

"Chill out, man," Kevin said, getting angry.

"Yeah, _idiota_ , stop talking." Antonio added, also very frustrated.

"How about no?" Mike told them sarcastically. "This tastes absolutely horrible!"

"Mike, that's enough, you've made your point." Jayden intercede, after looking at Mia who had been quietly watching with wide eyes.

"No I didn't, Jayden. And seriously, why are you all telling me to stop when you guys can taste how bad this soup is? Mia what the heck did you do? I thought you took cooking classes, you got better. Why are you regressing back to your old style of cooking? This chicken tortilla soup tastes a lot worse than anything you ever made. You can do so much better than this!" Mike said to her unkindly.

He finally took in the fact that Mia had been just observing the whole thing with wide eyes and without saying anything. Mia could see the exact moment when Mike stopped and realized what he said.

Total silenced reigned across the table, no one said anything. Suddenly, Mia couldn't hold it in anymore, she started laughing. Everyone looked at her in surprise.

"Oh Mike," she said as she got up from her seat and made her way towards Mike. "You're gonna be just fine. Don't you ever change, Mike. Don't you ever change." And then she wrapped him up in the biggest hug she possibly could.

"Wha?" He asked, voiced muffled by her dark hair.

Mia pulled away with a big smirk on her face. "I made two batches of soup. One crappy, one good. Everyone was so sure something was so wrong with you, I just wanted to prove to them that you were still Mike. I made a bet with myself once I started cooking classes that if it ever came to it, you would be the first one to tell me if my food sucks. Not because you are inherently mean or anything, but because you are an open and honest person. So because you did in fact tell me how bad my soup was, I know for a fact that you are perfectly fine. Just a sucky sick person." She ended with a big smile on her face.

Mia saw blatant regret written all over his face. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it, I'm so sorry." Mike said softly to her. It was obvious that he wasn't just apologizing for what he said about the soup, but for his behavior the past week.

Not being able to stand seeing Mike so despondent, she replied quickly. "Hey, don't worry about it. Everyone has their flaws. I don't think anyone is any better being sick. Just hurry up and get better."

"Okay," Mike said with a slight smile. "Does this mean we can toss this crap out and get our actual dinner?" He asked her with puppy dog eyes.

"Oh definitely. Give them here." Mia gathered up all the bowls, went to the kitchen, tossed the contents down the drain, and came back with the right kind of soup.

When she reached the dining room again, this time she was greeted with lively chatter and multiple conversations going on simultaneously.

"Yep, everything will be just fine." Mia declared under her breath, lips tilted upward in a giant grin.


	5. 4 Lauren

**AN: Woah, it's been a long time! As always, sorry for the long wait. Had a bit of a rough time getting these last few chapters out. But I am back and hopefully, you will like it. Please excuse the typos and grammar mistakes. I am still trying to get the hang of this fanfic writing business. This probably the furthest I have ever gotten with any story I've written. Not in terms of chapters, but in terms of completeness. I only have two more chapters after this. Pretty awesome! As always, please take the time to leave a review. Writer's block is a pain to deal with, and reviews make it all worth it.**

 **DISCLAIMER: To repeat, I do not own Power Rangers. This is for fun, not money. Enjoy!**

LAUREN

"What is this?" Lauren asked, pointing to the countless patties covering the kitchen table.

Mia, who had been whisking confection sugar together with the butter that she creamed just five minutes prior, looked up from her bowl and turned her gaze towards what Lauren was talking about. "Oh, you mean those?" At Lauren's slight nod, she continued. "They are the patties for the macarons that I've been hired to make for a baby shower tomorrow."

As Mia culinary skills improved with all the different cooking classes she had been taking, Mia started a side business of cooking meals and baking desserts for people who needed them. It was all part of Mia's plan in opening her own eatery one day. She figured the best way to accomplish her goal would be to start off small- raise money and build cliental. Ultimately opening up a place where she can reach a broader scope of people.

While the goal was rather large, Mia had the support of all the Samurai team and Ji with her. It was just rather time consuming and, more often than not, it was pretty rare nowadays for any of them to see her. When she first started getting busy, the rest of the team didn't want to disturb her. They knew that she was doing what she always dreamed of doing, and they didn't want get in her way or distract her. However, after a few missed outings with the rest of the team, Mia was left with a difficult choice to make. It wasn't as though Mia didn't realize how much she had to sacrifice to achieve her goal, she just didn't want to be that friend that never made the effort to go to planned meet ups. But as more and more orders started pouring in and her reputation growing steadily, she was mostly M.I.A for everything. Mia wasn't even able to see Kevin in his Olympic qualifier. It hit her really hard.

Thankfully, her friends were very observant and picked up on how sad, depressed, and guilty had been feeling and decided to do something about it. Instead of asking her to meet up with them, they made it point to visit her. Since she was cooking and baking from her small one-bedroom apartment, she was mostly always home. The only times she ever was out was when she needed to go to the groceries to buy ingredients for whatever food item that was ordered for her to make. During those times, her friends were able to catch her up on everything going on. They also lent a hand and helped out with the preparation when she got overwhelmed.

That was why Lauren was here at her apartment right now. Initially, Lauren had only come for a short visit. She was heading back to the Shiba compound from the city plaza, when on whim she had decided to take a detour and visit Mia. Once she saw a rather frazzled-looking Mia open the door, she didn't even hesitate to ask what she could do to help her out. The mega-watt, appreciative smile that spread across Mia's face made Lauren smile and happily bounce off towards the kitchen sink to wash her hands and await for instructions.

That was twenty minutes ago. After help making the patties that were now cooling, there was some downtime in the hustle of mixing and pouring and baking for Lauren to finally ask what she was helping Mia make.

Lauren's face scrunched up, forming slight crinkles in her forehead. "Macarons?" She questioned. "What are macarons?"

Mia's hands stopped whisking. "Wha… What do you mean what are macarons? You don't know what macarons are?" Mia replied, eyebrows raised in surprise.

A blush of pink spread across Lauren's face in embarrassment as she shook her head. "No, I don't know what they are. I never heard about them before growing up, nor have I had a chance to have them now." Lauren shrugged, eyes staring at the patties more intently now.

Feeling guilty about making Lauren feel bad, Mia put down the bowl and walked over towards the older girl. Once again, Mia was reminded of Lauren's unconventional upbringing. "Hey," she said as she put a comforting hand on Laurens. "Don't worry about it. It's not really that big of a deal. They just suddenly got really popular recently for God knows what reason." Mia rolled her eyes dramatically, causing Lauren to let out a slight giggle. She inwardly smiled in triumph at succeeding to brighten the girl's sudden downcast mood. "Anyway, all that is left for those patties to have to become macarons is for the filling."

"So, basically like an Oreo cookie. Where, in this case, the frosting filling you are making will be sandwiched between two patties?" Lauren asked, the creases in her forehead relaxing as she made her deduction.

"Exactly. However, with macarons, you can make different flavor fillings and make the patties any color you want. In this case the patties and filling are blue and pink since these are for a baby shower. The mother-to-be wanted mint flavored filling, so that is what I am making." Mia finished, as she picked up the mixing bowl with the butter and confection sugar mixture. Taking a whisk back in hand, she started whisking it again.

"Oh, I see." Lauren said after a slight pause, as she processed Mia's explanation of the treat. Lauren bit her lip before continuing. "Does it taste good?"

"Well, some people love it, some people don't. But for me? I'm impartial. I neither love it nor hate it. Let's just say that macarons wouldn't be my first choice for dessert if I get a chance to choose."

"Oh okay. Hey," Lauren said suddenly. "I told Jayden and Ji that I wouldn't be gone that long when I left to go to the plaza. I should probably be heading home. Unless of course, you need help with something else?"

"No, I'm good. You better get going before the two of them end up getting worried." Mia replied with a giant smile.

"They are such mother hens. It's ridiculous how worried they get." Lauren laughed.

Mia couldn't help but join in on the laughter. "That is true," she agreed. "But it goes into to overdrive when it comes to you. They missed having you around, so now that you are here with them they become very overprotective."

Lauren rolled her eyes. "Very overprotective is an understatement sometimes. Depending on the situation, swaddled like a newborn baby unable to be free is a better description."

"They only do it because they love you." Mia reminded her friend.

"I know," Lauren replied, her fondness for her family clearly evident even while being slightly exasperated by their behavior.

As she was heading towards the door and making her way out, Mia stopped her. "Thank you for your help, Lauren. I really appreciated it. If it weren't for you, I would still be making those patties." Mia told her sincerely.

"No problem, Mia. I was glad to help. Next time if it gets too much, send a text or call me. I'll be here in a snap if I'm not busy. You got friends you know." Lauren said to her.

Mia nodded with a slight smile on her face. "I know. They're pretty awesome ones at that." Mia playfully shoved at Lauren's shoulder.

A huge grin spread across Lauren's face. "That we are, my dear. That we are." And with that said, Lauren gave Mia a big hug and walked out the door.

After Lauren had left, Mia closed the door and walked back into her kitchen. Mia wanted to do something nice for Lauren to repay her for all the help she had given her this afternoon. She just didn't know what to do to show her appreciation. It wasn't until she started putting the filling onto the patties that Mia got a brilliant idea on what to do for Lauren.

Luckily, she hadn't taken off her apron yet. She still had much baking to do.

"Mia! What a wonderful surprise! It is so good to see you." Ji welcomed her after he opened the door of the Shiba home to find her in the entry way.

"It's so good to see you too, Ji. It has been a long while hasn't it?" Mia gave her mentor a one-armed hug, because she had container in her hand.

"Yes, yes. But I understand. You are after all running a business, and that takes a lot of time and effort. I have been hearing so many good things about your cooking. Brings back memories to when you were still, um, learning."

Mia's felt her face warm at the compliments being bestowed upon her. Growing up, she had always been taught that humility is something that should always be practiced. So hearing so many nice things said was a bit overwhelming in a good way. "Thank you so much, Ji."

"No problem, just saying the truth. Oh where are my manners? Come in, come in. Lauren had mentioned to Jayden that she had visited you today and helped you out some." Ji started to say as he ushered her inside the house.

"Yeah, and she was big help. Because of her, I was able to finish everything ahead of schedule. I actually brought over something for her as a thank you." Mia told him, bringing his attention towards the Tupperware container in her hand.

"Ah, I see. Well she and Jayden are in the kitchen right now. Let's go and see them." With that, Ji led the way to the kitchen. As he approached, he called out towards the remaining two occupants of the house. "Hey guys, guess who decided to come and visit us?" He gave her a wink and walked into the kitchen, Mia following a few steps behind him.

Jayden and Lauren got up from the high chairs they were sitting in quickly, once they realized who Ji had just invited into the kitchen. "Mia!" Jayden called out, wrapping his arms around her in a big hug. Over his shoulder, Mia saw Lauren grinning brightly at her.

"Hey." Mia said to him, once Jayden pulled away from her. She noticed from the siblings' matching black pants and red t-shirts that they were probably training not so long ago. The bottles of water resting on the kitchen island was also very telling. "How's it going?"

"Good, good. But you already know how Lauren is doing, you saw her today. Which, as I was telling Lauren just before you came, was unfair. She should have told me she was going to visit you." Jayden told her.

"And like I told you, it was a spontaneous decision. And I was able to help her out and spend time with her, so win-win all around for the two of us, right Mia?" Lauren interjected.

Mia nodded her head. "Yep. And because of that I have a small thank you gift for you." She held out the Tupperware container for Lauren to take.

"Really?" Lauren asked in surprise, taking the container from Mia's outstretched hand.

"See? Now this is really unfair. Why does Lauren get presents?" Jayden joked.

"Because she loves me. Duh!" Lauren said, sticking out her tongue.

"Well, I'm pretty sure she loves me too. Tell her, Mia. Tell her that you love me." Jayden said, giving her a puppy-dog look.

"Yeah," Mia started saying, "I love you too." As soon as those words left her mouth, she started feeling all warm again. But this time, she couldn't pin-point what caused her to react that way. "But," she continued to get over the queer feeling, "while I brought Lauren something, I figured I should bring you something too. You know, to avoid any sibling jealousy."

"What is it?" Lauren asked, still looking at the container in her hand.

"Open it." Mia encouraged her.

Lauren slowly opened the lid and peered inside. "Are these…" She said slowly.

Mia nodded her head. "Yeah, well, you said that you never had macarons before. So I figured why not make some for you. Remember how I told you that the patties could be whatever color and the filling whatever flavor a person wanted?" At this Lauren nodded her head. "Well, I made these red macarons with mocha filling just for you. The red patties is pretty self-explanatory I think. And everyone is well aware of how much you love mocha."

"Wow, Mia. You didn't have to." Lauren told her.

"I know, but I wanted you to have this experience." Mia replied. "So go ahead finally try a macaron."

"Yeah, Lauren. We'll all take one after you." Ji told her kindly.

"Go for it, sis." Jayden encouraged.

After looking at everyone's face, Lauren tentatively grabbed one out of the container. Holding it in her right hand, she inspected it for a moment, shrugged her shoulders, and took a bite.

Mia held her breath, hoping that the macarons came out alright. She didn't have to fret about it at all, because as soon as the macaron hit Lauren's mouth, it was obvious she was enjoying it.

"Oh my god!" Lauren said around her mouthful. "This is amazing! These are my new favorite things. From now on, this is what I want."

Jayden, Ji, and Mia laughed at her reaction. "That good huh?" Jayden needlessly asked her.

Lauren just took another bite, this one bigger than her first one, as a response.

"Well, I wouldn't mind trying one." Ji said. Lauren held out the container to allow Ji to take one of the macarons. After taking a bite himself, he added, "Wow, these really are good Mia. Well done."

"Thank you, Ji." Mia replied. It made Mia feel really good to see how much Lauren and Ji liked her creation.

"That was nice of you, Mia." She turned her attention towards the last remaining occupant in the kitchen. "I mean, you didn't have to make Lauren macarons just because she never tried them before." Jayden told her. Ji and Lauren were too involved in eating that they weren't paying attention to the conversation happening between him and Mia.

"I know that, Jayden, but I wanted to. Look at how happy she is. It's the least I could do for all the help she gave me today." Mia told him simply.

"Yeah, but still. It was nice of you to do so." Jayden reached over to her and placed a kiss upon her cheek. "You're a good person, Mia. Also, next time you have a lot going on, let us know. We'd be happy to help you out." With that said, he walked over towards the container and pulled out a macaron for himself to eat.

Mia, on the other hand, was frozen in her spot, her heart doing somersaults in her ribs. It took every ounce of her willpower not to touch the place on her cheek where Jayden had kissed her. But if she were to be honest with herself, she would swear that she could still feel his lips.


	6. 5 Antonio

**AN: WAHOO! I am almost done with this fic! Yes! I have only one more chapter after this one. It will mark the first multi-chaptered fic I ever finished. How cool is that? Anyways, once again I am sorry for the long wait. Like I mentioned before, writer's block is a complete pain to deal with. Please forgive the grammar and typo mistakes that will be abound in dozens. Also, reviews make me happy so please, please, please leave one. It would seriously make my day, afternoon, or night, to see some, and would encourage me to write more. I am pretty sure this is my longest chapter. I actually had lots of fun writing this one. Anyways, hope you like!**

 **DISCLAIMER: I don't own Power Rangers. This was for fun, not money. Enjoy! :]**

ANTONIO

"What's going on between you and Jayden?" Antonio asked her quietly so only she could hear him. The two of them were alone by the table getting some dessert. He was scooping up some more homemade rocky road ice-cream onto his plate. Said plate was already loaded with the countless other desserts Mia had made for his "Welcome Back from Your Second Trip around the World" dinner.

Despite Antonio's dream of opening his own fish specialty restaurant, Antonio really enjoyed travelling. He always jumped at the chance to visit different countries. According to him, it was a chance to see and learn different ways to prepare and eat fish. It would come in handy one day, he told his friends over and over again, more exuberant and optimistic each time. None of them ever doubted Antonio's vision, but it was obvious that he was taking the long way round to fulfill his dream. Not that it mattered really, since he was so happy and content with the opportunities that were available to him right now. If there was anything that Mia appreciated the most about her former teammate and good friend, it was his ability to live life to its fullest in the now and worry less about what the future may hold. Since to him, the future was not set in stone. The fact that he paved his own destiny and became a Samurai Ranger without being part of the five families just fueled his philosophy. And to be honest, Mia was really glad that life and being a ranger didn't burn him as much as it had the others.

That was why when Mia realized that he was back in town, it gave her the opportunity to bring everyone together again. It was no one's fault really, schedules just wouldn't line up. Mike, Emily, and Serena hadn't visited since the Mike had gotten sick, and Kevin was still busy training. Due to the extra clients she had been taking on, Mia hadn't seen much of Lauren and Jayden either. And when she did, it was very awkward for her.

Ever since that day she gave Lauren the macarons and realized her feelings for Jayden, being around the Shiba siblings was difficult. Living, fighting alongside, and just knowing each other for so long made it hard to hide the inner turmoil she was feeling. She knew that Jayden and Lauren had both been concerned since the first time they saw each other after her revelation.

The two siblings had come over to drop off the Tupperware container that she had brought the macarons in at her apartment the next day. Mia was so flustered she couldn't look either of them in the eye long, and tried to get them to leave quickly before they figured anything out. She was lucky that she had the excuse of baking for clients to blame for her abnormal behavior, but she still felt guilty knowing she was avoiding them. Especially Jayden. The sudden epiphany she had made her feel more than what she would have felt before, and she really didn't know what to do about it. The short times that she was able to talk to Jayden she was always worrying about whether or not he could tell that things had changed for her. Her heartbeat seemed to always go frantic and her hands always felt clammy whenever she was around him. She wished to whatever higher being there was in the Universe that she could find an off button for her feelings, but apparently that prayer had still gone unanswered.

So here they now were, the whole team together to welcome back Antonio. The party was in part to subconsciously make amends for the way Mia was acting. That was why she thought it would be a good idea to have Jayden help her with everything that she made for the celebration tonight. Unfortunately, it wasn't the best idea she had.

Mia tried so hard to be normal with Jayden, but the more she tried, the more off balance she was. It made her cringe when she thought about it. That morning when she arrived at the Shiba home, Jayden greeted her with a brilliant smile that made her knees go weak. She was so off her game and she knew it. In trying to conceal how off she was, she hardened herself. It wasn't as though she was downright rude, she just adopted a strict no-nonsense attitude. It was a stark difference to the time when they were in the kitchen together during Emily's birthday months before. There was no giggles or companionable silence. Instead there was just orders uttered by Mia and Jayden following them. Mia saw how the progression on how the brilliant smile that she saw on Jayden's face when she first arrived dimmed with every stern order. When Lauren had come back home from wherever she was had gone and observed the atmosphere, Mia saw the silent look of confusion on Lauren's face and the helpless shrug Jayden gave his sister in response. Mia tried to even forget the slightly slumped shoulders Jayden sported for the rest of their time in the kitchen. It was easier said than done.

She also knew that everyone else was feeling tension. Or at least not so much the tension but the weirdness in the air. Emily, Serena, and Kevin kept giving her furtive glances throughout the night when they thought she wasn't looking. Mike, on the other hand, did nothing to disguise his staring. He kept looking at her like she was a puzzle that needed solving, and he had no clue where to begin. Lauren and Jayden, she knew, had tried to make Mike act less obvious. But Mike was Mike, and he never could do subtle. Mia pretended she didn't notice any of her friend's antics. To make each of her friends feel better she made sure to talk to them all. They all seemed as though they wanted to say something about how she was acting, but none of them were sure how to start.

Mia's saving grace was Antonio.

The entire night, he made sure to talk to everyone and guaranteed no uncomfortable silences. He talked and talked, and talked some more about his new experiences and shared long elaborate stories that everyone was captivated by. It was when everyone was off in their little groups that she was under suspicion. And during those times she stuck to Antonio like paper to glue. His jubilant aura calmed her and made her feel like her normal self for the first time in weeks. Being around Antonio made the metaphorically weight on her chest feel lighter, and made her feel more relaxed. Mia couldn't help the small, genuine smile that broke out on her face as he kept touching her hand or arm. Antonio had always been a tactile person who didn't always understand what personal space meant. It had taken a bit of time and some conversations with the guy for the team to understand and accept that special facet of Antonio's personality. However, at the moment, Mia couldn't have been more grateful for it. His touch was comforting and grounding. She should have realized that just because he didn't say anything before or act as though anything was off, didn't mean he didn't realize something was wrong.

Which brought Mia back to Antonio's present question.

Caught off guard, Mia dropped the serving spoon she was holding in her hand. Thankfully the serving spoon luckily landed back into the tray that held the tres leche cake with a small clank. "What? Me and Jayden? Nothing is going on between the two of us. What, no, don't know why you would think that there is anything going on." Mia spluttered as she picked up the serving spoon once again. However, she suddenly did not feel like taking a piece anymore. To be truthful, her mood for dessert had quickly fled out the window as soon as Antonio finished his question. Kind of like how she wanted to do herself.

Antonio raised his eyebrows. "What an answer you've got there, chica. The two of you are always talking or around each other. If nothing is wrong with you and Jayden, why haven't you spent more than five minutes with the guy? Why does he look so put out? Why are we ALL feeling so off?" Antonio asked. He saw Mia's gaze go towards Jayden, who looked at her at the same time. As soon as she was caught, Antonio saw her go white, and scrunched up his face. "And why do you suddenly look like a ghost? What happened between the two of you? Is everything okay?" He continued to ask with concern.

Mia heaved a sigh, she knew that she had to talk to someone before she imploded. At the moment, the best person was Antonio, so she pulled on his arm to bring him closer. Despite the fact that everyone else was pretty far enough away from the dessert table and couldn't possibly overhear the conversation, she needed to make sure only Antonio could hear her. "Okay, okay. I found something out about me, about my feelings to be more exact really. Apparently these feelings that I just found out I have, I didn't realize I always had them. And now I am very aware of these feelings and I don't know how to act anymore." Mia said in a rushed whisper, going hysterical at the end. Despite being aware of how incoherent her chain of thought was and how confusing it must have sounded to Antonio, Mia was so glad to have finally got her confession off her chest and confided in someone.

Antonio hadn't really said anything in response, and Mia was starting to get worried. Before she could open her mouth again, he put his plate of desserts on the table, took her hand, and guided her out of the room away from everyone else. He led her away until they ended up in one of the guest rooms to talk privately in. Mia couldn't help but feel grateful towards Antonio for being considerate enough to think about doing that for her. He realized that she was still trying to sort out how to deal with new feelings. No, not really new feelings, just feelings that had always been there that had blossomed slowly over time. It was just now that she had the chance to decipher it, and she was scared shitless.

"Okay Mia, we are away from everyone now. You are obviously feeling a lot and need someone to talk to, and after this amazing welcome back dinner I think I am more than indebted to listen than anyone else." Antonio told her as he pulled her along to sit on the bed.

Mia took a deep breath. "Do you promise not to tell anyone?" Mia asked him in a small voice, playing with lace trim at the hem of her dress.

Antonio reached over and took her hand in his own. "Of course, chica. Everything you say will never be uttered out of this room. I swear." He said earnestly.

Mia nodded and took another cleansing breath for courage. "I am in love with Jayden." She told him, voice a lot steadier than it had ever been compared to the times when she told herself that in her bathroom mirror.

She looked at Antonio to gauge his reaction. He had a beaming smile on his face that went all the way to his eyes. It was moments like these, where Antonio's unbridled joy overtakes his face that Mia thought he looked the most beautiful. "Oh Mia, I am so happy that you finally realized how you feel about Jayden. But I don't understand why this would make you act so unlike yourself."

"What do you mean?" Mia asked him in shock. What? "I just figured this out a few weeks ago. How did you know? And of course I am not acting like myself, I don't want him to know!"

"Don't be so shocked, linda. You, Mia, have a very big heart capable of all kinds of love; love for your family, love for your teammates, love for you friends. However, the way your love manifests for each person is so specific. The way you treat all of us had always been different than the way you treated Jayden. It's not so obvious unless someone really pays close attention, and I have. That was one of the first things I noticed when I became a part of the team. There was just something about the two of you that just made a lot of sense, and I didn't want to interfere with that."

Mia couldn't help but be stunned by what Antonio was saying. "Well, I wish you could have clued me in sooner. It would have been really helpful." She said to him, scoffing at her own obliviousness to her heart.

Antonio gave a small laugh. "It wasn't my place to do that. Only your heart and your mind can do that for you. They are the ones in charge to feel what you feel and let you know about it. Unfortunately, it's not always simultaneous. It is only when your mind and heart are both ready to listen to each other that it is the right time for you to do anything."

"Yeah, but now what do I do?" Mia asked him in a small voice.

"You tell him, of course." Antonio replied. It sounded so simple, but was it really?

Mia shook her head. "No way! What if he doesn't feel the same way? What if I run the relationship we have right now? What if he wouldn't be able to be around me anymore and that makes things so awkward with everyone? Can I really risk all of that?"

This time it was Antonio shaking his head vigorously. "Mia, you are forgetting the biggest 'what-if' of all. What if you miss out on the love of your life because you didn't say anything? Que lastima!"

Seeing the blank look on Mia's face, Antonio continued to speak. "I have known Jayden since we were kids, Mia. He is most definitely my soul brother; we were destined to be in each other's lives. Like I said before, there is just something so right with the two of you being together. I can't presume to know what Jayden is feeling, only Jayden could tell you that. Butt from my vantage point, I can see that he cares an awful lot about you. I mean he talks about you all the time and what you guys are up to when you spend time together when we are away. You are one of the very few people who can make him see reason fast when he is being a stubborn ass. He also worries about you constantly with your new business and how you are handling the stress. The biggest thing that I've noticed to tell you the truth, is that he always has this special smile reserved just for you that just brightens up his whole face. It makes him look as though nothing could ever bring him down. If I were forced to make a bet, I would put money on the fact that he loves you too. But you are going to have to take that leap of faith and figure out how he loves you on your own."

Mia was quiet for a while soaking everything Antonio had said, and Antonio was kind enough to let her be in the silence. "I guess you're right," Mia said finally. "I need to figure out where Jayden and I stand in all of this because I am not being fair at all to him. The way I've treated him has been horrible, and it hurts. I know it hurts him as well, I can see it. But let me tell you, it's been tearing me up each time I see what my actions do to him. Thanks for being a great friend and listening to me, Antonio." Mia said, as she moved closer to hug him.

Antonio wrapped his arms around her as well. "No problem. That is what I'm here for." He told her as they moved slightly out of their embrace. Mia was thankful for the physical closeness, it gave her the impression of drawing courage from a seemingly endless well of support hidden within her friend that she could borrow. Having a talk about her feelings with Jayden was going to be more frightening than any of the battles they had when dealing with Master Xandred.

"Hey Antonio," Mia started to say, remembering something Antonio had said from his impassioned speech. "What did you mean when you said that there was something between me and Jayden that you didn't want to interfere with? How would you have interfered?" She asked bemused.

The question got her a full, pot-belly laugh from her friend. "Oh, chica, I was so taken by you when I first met you."

Mia shoulders went stock still. "Taken by me? You had a crush on me?"

Antonio nodded, signature big grin on his face. "Yeah I did. But," he said as he saw her face fall in guilt. "I assure you it did not last long. I observed how you and Jayden were, that made definitely dissipated my crush on you. But don't tell anyone, you are my favorite out of the entire team."

This brought a giggle out of Mia's mouth. "Deal, as long as you don't tell anyone that you are my favorite too."

"Deal."

"I guess we should probably go back out there before someone finds us and gets the wrong impression." Mia said as she got up from the bed. She pulled at the lace of her dress to bring it back down from where it had ridden up.

"And what impression would that be, hmmm?" Antonio asked with a suggestive smirk.

Mia elbowed him in his side. "Shut up, and come on." This time it was Mia who took his hand and dragged him out of the guest room and back to where everyone was. There were still happy smiles on both of their faces.

Unfortunately, their absence did not go unnoticed by their friends. Unbeknownst to the pair, their friends were talking about what was going on. One such friend was a bit more, shall we say concerned, about why the two of them left together. It didn't help that when Antonio and Mia got back to the celebration, their hands were still joined.

As soon as the two of them came back, Mia made sure to go to where everyone else was talking. She could have sworn that the conversation had paused for a split second, but that could have been just her imagination.

"Well, I'm going to go and finally eat some dessert. You guys want anything while I go to the table?" Antonio asked, unfazed by the slightly accusatory looks he was getting from the rest of their friends. Mia noticed, but she didn't say anything. They all responded with a negative so Antonio looked at her.

"No, I'm good. But before you go? I propose a toast." Mia felt, more than saw the way everyone's gaze moved quickly towards her from Antonio.

"A toast?" Jayden asked, trying to sound normal but falling flat.

Mia's heart seized painfully in her chest. She is the reason for that voice. She had no idea what Jayden thought had happened between her and Antonio to make him sound so unlike himself, but she knew it had to be pretty bad. She could fix this. She needed to fix this.

"Yeah, a toast. To seeing and spending time with friends we haven't been able to for a long while." Mia said this looking at Mike, Emily, and Serena. "To wishing a friends that they are able to see the fruits of their hard work and dedication," this was said towards Kevin. "To friends who are always there for you even when you least expect it," this was said towards Antonio and Lauren. "And lastly to friends who accept you without comment even when you feel a bit off," this was said towards Jayden. With a big smile, she finished, "To friends that became family and relationships that will never break."

They hadn't done this in a while, but Mia knew they would get it. Looking around her circle of friends, she outstretched her hand palm down.

Antonio, who had seemed to understand where she was going put his hand on top of hers. And one by one, like dominoes, Emily, Mike, Serena, Kevin, Lauren, and Jayden put their hands into the pile.

After that, everything went pretty much back to normal. While she still got some confused looks, everyone seemed to relax a lot more. The only one that seemed to still be tense was Jayden, which Mia understood. She went from being cold all day to him, to suddenly acting like everything was the way it was. Obviously he felt something was still not right.

Mia knew that she still had to have a conversation with Jayden about her feelings at some point. Sooner, better than later if she was being honest with herself. But if this was the last time they were all going to be together before Mia opened up her can of worms, she wanted to make sure everyone was happy. But she knew that Jayden wouldn't be unless he got down to what was bothering her in the first place.

Meeting Antonio's eye from where he left the huddle to go and finally get some dessert, Mia knew what she had to do.

"Hey Jayden," Mia said to him, pulling him aside while Mike was telling some story to the rest of their friends.

"Yeah?" Jayden replied, guarded expression on his face.

"Since I made a total mess in your kitchen once again, I'm going to stay back and help clean. If that is okay with you?" Mia asked him, nervousness coating her voice.

"Uh yeah, sure." Jayden replied and made to move.

As he was leaving, Mia reached out to grab his arm to stop him. "I actually need to talk to you about something so we can do it then."

Jayden looked at where she had touched him and back to her face. Not knowing whether or not he found what he was looking for in her expression, he nodded sharply once and walked away.

Mia was staring at his back when she felt a presence next to her. She gave a small, grateful smile to Antonio.

"Just so you know," Mia said, keeping her eyes on Jayden as she spoke. She saw Jayden give a laugh that made her heart do flips. "Regardless of what happens during my talk with Jayden, expect chocolate chip cookies at some point tomorrow."

"Absolutamente." He replied back cheekily.


	7. 6 Jayden

**AN: I AM ALL DONE! YAY! Thank you to everyone who read this story. This is the first multi-chapter story I ever finished. I hoped you liked it. Please leave me reviews! Once again, all typos and grammar mistakes are mine.**

 **DISCLAIMER: I do not own Power Rangers. This was just for fun, not profit. Enjoy! :]**

JAYDEN

After everyone had left, Mia followed Jayden through the hallway to get to the kitchen. She was so preoccupied with her thoughts that she was working on autopilot. It was a good thing that she lived at the Shiba household for a year and could navigate through it even with her eye closed. Unfortunately, as she was busy trying to sort out all her feelings and wondering how to begin to explain herself to Jayden, she didn't realize how quiet her companion was throughout their short trip. When they got into the kitchen, they immediately went to different sides of the room and began cleaning their sides in silence.

The silence that surrounded them was drawing thicker and thicker wrapping them in it like smoke, slowly suffocating them. Mia couldn't help but feel so guilty about the whole situation. She was the one to mess up their relationship by trying to avoid her feelings. In trying to bury her feelings, she let Jayden's friendship slide. Their once comfortable companionship was filled with awkwardness. Mia knew that she needed to fix this as soon as she could, but every time she opened her mouth, the word kept getting stuck I her mouth like molten caramel to teeth. She kept looking over to Jayden, but he didn't seem to be catching her eye. After she looked at him longer than the momentary glance that she knew he could feel, she came to the conclusion that he was avoiding seeing her and talking to her on purpose.

It made Mia's heart clench tight to know that she reduced Jayden to doing something like this. It was like all the progress the whole team had made with helping their team leader come out of his shell was wiped away. Had he realized the way she felt already and was trying to avoid dealing with it because he didn't appreciate her affection? The errant thought was quickly dismissed. The only person who knew about her feelings for Jayden was Antonio, and there was no moment after they came back from their private talk where he wasn't near her. He ate dike her body guard and wouldn't leave her side, and she really appreciated the physical closeness. More than that, she was relieved that she had someone who knew how she felt now. It didn't make her feel so alone. But still, the tension in Jayden's form and the way he seemed to be hunching into himself every second was starting to really worry her. Mia needed to find a way to fix this before her friendship with Jayden becomes irreparable.

"It was great to see Antonio again after so long." Jayden said suddenly, turning towards her.

Mia was startled for a minute at the out of the blue conversation starter. But then she let out a big smile. This was good, Jayden started conversation with her. Maybe things between them aren't as unsalvageable as she thought they were.

"Yeah, it was so go to see him. He really enjoyed his trip." Mia replied, big smile still on her face. The smile started to fade when she saw the slight frown on Jayden's face. "Is everything okay, Jayden?" She asked, starting to feel apprehensive again.

"I should be the one to be asking you that." Jayden told her, his frown becoming deeper. He was cleaning the dishes when they first reached into the kitchen. Now he was doing it with extra vigor.

"What do you mean?" Mia questioned, face scrunched up in confusion. She was really thrown off by the tone in Jayden's voice.

Jayden took a deep sigh and ran a hand through his hair. "Seriously, Mia, are you seriously asking me that?" He said, his voice rising steadily in volume.

Mia was still looking at him in confusion so he continued. He obviously had a lot of things he wanted to say, and nothing was going to stop him from doing just that.

"For the past few weeks you have been ignoring me, being so detached and making excuses so you wouldn't have to spend time with me." Seeing that Mia was going to interrupt, Jayden raised his hand and pointed his finger at her. "Don't even try to deny it, Mia, you have. Everyone realized it. At first I just thought you needed some time to yourself, since you know your catering business had been getting quite popular. But then I realized it was just me you were avoiding. And the thing is, I don't even know what I did."

Seeing that he was waiting for a reply, Ma tried to figure out what to say. She knew that now was the moment of truth. She wasn't being fair to Jayden and he deserved to know everything.

Taking a deep inhale of breath and trying to gather up all her courage, she began to speak. "You're right, Jayden. I had been avoiding you, and I am really sorry about that. I was going through some stuff and I needed to sort everything out. Antonio was able to help me, so now I know what I should do." Mia would have continued, but Jayden interrupted her with a sarcastic chuckle.

"You couldn't tell me, but you were able to tell Antonio? We have always been able to talk to each other, what happened that messed us up? Never mind, Antonio came back so why would you need to talk to me about anything? Open and affectionate Antonio who isn't as messed up as robotic soldier Jayden. Of course you would feel more comfortable telling him things compared to me. If you have the choice, you wouldn't pick Antonio over me,"

Mia was completely thrown by the self-depreciating tone in Jayden's voice. "That's not it, Jayden." She tried to explain, but Jayden just shook his head, refusing to let her continue.

"Yet it is. I know I don't deal with things normally, I know that. But that doesn't mean that I wouldn't have tried to understand whatever you were going through. But instead you went to Antonio that first chance you got. You couldn't even wait to spend time with him alone. You guys were gone for a quite a long time."

Suddenly something clicked in Mia's mind. Oh god, she knew talking alone with Antonio in one of the spare rooms was a bad idea. It was bound to give everyone the wrong impression.

"I know what you're thinking, and it's not that. That's not… you have it all wrong, Jayden."

Jayden scoffed and cross his arms over his chest. "Really? If you know what I'm thinking, then why don't you tell me?"

"You think I'm in love with Antonio. But you're wrong, so very wrong." Mia told him adamantly, walking towards him to close the space between them.

"You're not are you? Then why did you two leave and come back seventeen minutes later?" Jayden asked her harshly.

Despite the seriousness of the conversation Mia couldn't help but laugh. "You timed us?" She asked him, incredulous of the whole situation.

A slight red hue burst across Jayden's cheeks that had nothing to do with his frustration. "You haven't answered the question." He told her, trying to take the attention off of him.

Mia could not believe this. "We were just talking, Jayden. That's it I swear. You can ask Antonio if you don't believe me."

The air seemed to leave Jayden at Mia's admission. "Oh. Okay." There was a second where Jayden was processing her answer before he asked her a follow up question, less angry. "What were you guys talking about?"

"You." Mia told him plainly.

This time it was Jayde who was startled. His eyebrows were scrunched up together in confusion. "What were you telling Antonio about me that you had to go to a separate room to talk about?"

At this point, Mia just wanted to get this over and done with. All these ridiculous misunderstandings had to stop right now. "I was talking to him about my feelings about you." Mia got even closer to him, completely crossing the short distance between them until she was close enough to count al the eyelashes that covered his beautiful eyes.

Jayden, on the other hand, seemed frozen. The only thing that he moved were those beautiful eyes which looked at Mia's lips and then her eyes, then one more time making the same trip before he started speaking. "What do you mean?" He whispered.

Mia didn't say anything. Instead, she deliberately closed the gap between the two of them and placed a soft kiss on Jayden's lips. She slowly pulled away from Jayden's face with a small smile. "That's what I mean. I like you Jayden. Actually, I'm pretty completely sure I'm utterly in love with you. I don't know when it happened. All I know is that I think it was always there, and grew a little more every day. I realized it when you kissed my cheek when I brought over the macarons for Lauren. I didn't know what to do, so I tried to avoid it. Instead I made things horrible between us, and Antonio helped me realize that. You're wrong by the way." Mia raised her hand to gently touch Jayden's cheek. "Between you and Antonio, I would always choose you."

It was after a couple of seconds that Mia realized that Jayden hadn't said anything in response to her confession and kiss, and she was starting to worry. "I just messed up our friendship didn't I?" She said, sadly. She pulled her hand away and started to turn away. She needed to leave before she started crying.

Before she could even start walking away, Jayden grabbed her by the wrist, turned her around, and this time, kissed her.

This kiss was a lot different than the kiss that Mia had given him. While her kiss was short and sweet, this one was deep ad full of unbridled passion. Mia's arms instinctively wrapped themselves around Jayden's neck, while Jayden's hands settled at her waist. With a slight tug he pulled her closer to him, licking the seam of her mouth begging for entrance she gladly gave.

Mia's head was spinning. She couldn't believe that this was really happening. Still trying to wrap her head around it, she was vaguely aware of Jayden hoisting her body up to sit on the kitchen counter. The back of her head was resting against the cabinet door, and Jayden was standing between the V of her legs. As much as she wanted to kiss Jayden forever and more, she knew they needed to slow down for now before anything more was done. They needed to talk this whole thing out.

"Jayden." Mia started, her voice sounding breathless and, to her slight embarrassment, wanton.

"Mmm?" Jayden replied, slowly placing kisses down her neck.

"We, uhh, we… What are we doing?" Mia asked.

Jayden pulled away from his planned assault on her neck. "I thought it was obvious what we were doing. Were you not into it?" He asked, sounding just as breathless as she did a moment ago. However, he quickly got a serious look on his face at the thought that they were doing something she didn't want to. Mia wanted nothing more than to wipe that look from his face as quickly as she could.

"No, it's not that. I assure you that what we were doing was completely okay, and where it was going would have been okay as well. But, I think we really need to talk about what this is between us. What are we now?" Mia asked.

Jayden helped Mia off of the counter and took her hand in his own. "I am in love with you, Mia Wantanabe." He started, looking at her straight in the eye. "I have been for a very long time, but was too afraid to do anything to ruin our relationship. Everyone knew, except you."

"Really?" Mia asked, eyes filling with happy tears.

"Yes," Jayden replied, rubbing small circles across her knuckles. "I would like to take you out sometime, and kiss some more like to take you out sometime, and kiss some more like we just were a few minutes ago. What do you say to that?"

"I say yes, a million times yes."

Jayden broke into a big smile. "That's good, now you sit there at the island. I think we should talk some more, but we should do so over some hot chocolate. But before we do that, I want to say sorry for the way I was acting before with the whole Antonio thing. I'm sorry."

"It's okay, Jayden, I understand. But you should never feel inferior compared to Antonio. You both are wonderful people, but in different ways. You are a lot more than robot soldier Jayden to me." Mia told him.

"Either way, I am sorry. So you okay for hot chocolate?"

"You're going to make me some hot chocolate?" Mia asked, raising an eyebrow towards him.

In response, Jayden rolled his eyes. "I know that I'm not the cook slash baker out of the two of us, but I do make a mean hot chocolate. It's actually my mother's recipe."

"Well then, I'd love to have some. Need any help?"

"No, it's a secret recipe. So like I said, go sit at the table, it should be ready in ten minutes."

"Aye-aye captain." Mia gave Jayden a mock salute and went to sit at one of the high chairs next to the kitchen island.

She could not believe any of this was happening. If she had known back when she first realized she was in love with Jayden that this was where she would have ended up, Mia wouldn't have waited all this time trying to avoid Jayden. Maybe then she would have realized what everyone else had realized about Jayden's feelings for her.

A clunk of ceramic hitting granite broke through her thought. "Here you are, my mom's famous hot chocolate." Jayden said proudly. "Get ready to drink the best hot chocolate you will ever have."

This time it was Mia who rolled her eyes. "Whatever you say Jayden."

"Why don't you take a sip and see." Jayden smirked.

Mia had ever been one to back down from a challenge, and she wouldn't start now. Especially not a challenge put forth by her boyfriend. And boy did that make her feel giddy to say. So she blew on the liquid in her mug, brought it to her lips, and took a sip.

"Oh my god! This is amazing." Mia moaned. "It's like happiness in liquid form." She gushed as she took another sip.

Jayden let out a genuine chuckle. "I told you so. My mom's hot chocolate recipe is the best. But please, be careful not to burn your mouth." Jayden said, smiling widely.

"Can I persuade you to tell me the recipe?" he asked him, not so innocently putting her hand high on his thigh.

Jayden's eyes clouded over in lust for a moment before he had to physically shake his head. "Nice try, but I'm not telling you, yet." He told her, taking a sip from his own mug.

"Yet?" Mia questioned.

"Yet." Jayden repeated, taking her hand that was on his thigh, putting it up on the table, and lacing their fingers together.

They both sat there together in comfortable silence wrapped up in the warmth of hot chocolate and each other. Mia couldn't help but note that the hot chocolate was the first time anyone made any type of food or drink specifically for her. That fact made a greater warmth spread throughout her body.

"You know that I won't tell you the hot chocolate recipe yet, but would you like to know my mom's secret ingredient?" Jayden asked her suddenly.

"Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of a secret recipe, giving away the secret ingredient?" Mia asked, curious.

"Not when Mom's secret ingredient was the same thing in every recipe." Jayden told her, a distant look in his eyes.

Realizing that it was important for Jayden to share that memory with her, Mia answered him. "Okay, what's the secret ingredient?"

"The thing that makes any food or drink taste amazing is the person for whom you are cooking or baking for. The more you care for that person the better the food or drink."

Mia's throat suddenly felt clogged. "That makes a lot of sense. Your mother was a very smart person."

"She was. She was also an awesome cook and bake like someone else I know."

The look shining through Jayden's eyes directed at her made Mia feel so utterly loved, she didn't know what to say in response. So instead she reached her mug up.

"Cheers." Mia said, hoping to convey everything she was feeling in one word.

"Cheers right back." Jayden replied, giving a squeeze to the hand still entwined with his.


End file.
